The invention generally relates to an automatic taper for drywall. More specifically, the invention relates to a manner for accessing the interior of the business end of the automatic taper for drywall. The taper may have an easily removable cover plate which may allow a user to obtain easy access to the interior of the nozzle of the taper. A user may gain access to the interior of the nozzle by flipping a rotating securing bar upward and then removing the removable cover plate.
Drywall tapers have been around for a long time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,647 to Eccleston discloses a taper for applying tape and mastic to joints between prefabricated wall sections such as gypsum board comprising a tubular housing which holds a supply of mastic, a main drive roller mounted at the forward end of the housing which rotates by friction as it is moved along a wall and tape drive roller means operated by the main drive roller and which feeds the tape forwardly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,562 to Trout discloses a unitary nozzle for use in a taping apparatus. The unitary nozzle features a cradle section adjacent a tube receiving section and a flange for sealingly receiving a mastic tube. A mastic is extruded and contained along a path extending along one side of the tape and between a front and rear end of the nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,121 to Ames discloses a self-contained dry wall taper has a hollow elongated body for holding mastic and supports a roll of tape with tape feeding means to deliver the tape to tape applying wheels that in turn apply it to cover a joint between two wall board sections. A piston is slidably mounted in the hollow body and is automatically moved by a mechanism actuated by the rotating wheels, as they are moved over the wall board surface, to force a layer of mastic onto the tape just prior to it being applied to the surface. Novel tape feeding and tape cutting means are actuated by a single sleeve which is moved forwardly on the hollow body to initially feed the tape into engagement with the tape applying wheels and is moved rearwardly to actuate the tape-cutting mechanism for cutting the tape. A tape creasing disc can be swung into operative position by the operator when the tape is to be applied to an inner corner of a room and it is desired to provide a median crease along the length of the tape and for forcing this crease into the room corner as the mastic and tape are applied.
However, these existing automatic tapers fail to allow a user to obtain easy access to the interior portion of the nozzle of taping tool for cleaning and/or repairing the taping tool. More specifically, these existing automatic tapers generally require the removal of (usually) at least four screws in order to remove the cover plate. The automatic taper of the present invention allows a user to save time by removing the removable cover plate in a quick and efficient manner. A need, therefore, exists for an improved automatic taper which allows a user to easily, cheaply and conveniently apply gain access to the interior of the taping device.